winter time

hi I have a ball python named monty. I was given monty about a year ago and don't know how old he is he's approx 4.5 feet in length and he is housed in a viv 1200 x 450 x450 with a hide each end a good size water bowl he has ceramic heat lamp with a pulse thermostat at about 86 degrees warm end and a light fitting I have recently replaced the bulb to ultra violet (yesterday) it is set up to day and night cooler with no light at night and so on . And he has always been a good feeder but about 3 months ago he slowed down not as active and has gone of his food only feeding occasionally I still offer him food once a week but most of the time to no joy could it be a winter thing or am I doing something wrong please help
:confusd:

Your cage temps look a little low. Try boosting them a few degrees:

Hot side between 88-92 F
Cool side between 78-82 F

If boosting the temps doesn't help it might just be a winter thing. It's the BP's breeding season and some of them tend to eat less during the winter.

It's not uncommon at all for adult male ball pythons to fast during this time of year. I had one that went of feed for over six months once with no adverse effects. I know it is nerve-wracking if you have not seen it before. I have gotten to the point that I automatically just thaw fewer rodents during the winter months, because I expect more refusals, especially from the adult males. I don't worry about them, because I know it is pretty normal and that they should be fine.

If Monty is normally a frozen / thawed eater, offering a live feeder might make him more willing to eat. I have had that work for fasting ball pythons, and then they seem to switch back to frozen / thawed just fine. If he normally does eat live, you might want to keep cage to house the rodent until he feels like taking it if you don't have any other snakes that might take it.

My one BP(Petey) is now on the same cycle with 2 of my colubrids and doesn't eat from late October until March/April.

by the looks of things then it could just be mating season (fingers crossed) but thanks to all that replied to my post